ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, on Monday, deferred indictment of Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah and others in illegal award of contracts in Sindh Nooriabad Power Companies (SNPC and SNPC-II) and money laundering case due to absence of some pages in the reference till September 14.
The Accountability Court-III judge, Syed Asghar Ali, while hearing the case, deferred framing of charge against Shah and others till September 14, and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce all the missing pages and documents, which have been part of the reference.
Chief Minister Shah and other accused were present during the hearing in the courtroom. The court after marking attendance of all the accused said that all the accused are present in the court; therefore, charges should be framed against them. On this, the defence counsel filed an application before the court seeking provision of missing pages and documents in the reference.
He told the court that 66 volumes of the reference have been provided to us but many pages are missing in some volumes. On this, the court summoned the investigation officer (IO) of the case and took a short break. The NAB prosecutor submitted a report about declaring a co-accused, Muhammad Ali, as proclaimed offender.
The court during previous hearing issued directives to place Ali's name on the Exit Control List (ECL) and block his computerised national identity card (CNIC). After the break, the court directed the NAB to ensure provision of the missing documents in the reference during the next hearing to be held on September 14.
Shah, while talking to the media after appearing before the court, said that the cases of Covid-19 have again increased in the country but situation in Sindh is now under control due to timely measures taken by his government. Cases of coronavirus have declined because of one-week long lockdown and cooperation of masses in Sindh, he said, adding that the Sindh government has faced criticism after it imposed one-week long lockdown in the province.
He said that Pakistan's name has yet not been removed from the UK red list due to reservations over statistics of Covid-19 cases. His province has adopted strict protocol about Covid-19 and did not hide anything about the spread of the virus, he said, adding that Sindh province took all decisions as per the directions of the NCOC. About his case, he said that the NAB's IO was not present in the court during today's hearing. A number of documents and pages were missing in the copies of reference provided to them, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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